


Legacy

by plutosrose



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: F/M, Future Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-31
Updated: 2020-05-31
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:22:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24476443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/plutosrose/pseuds/plutosrose
Summary: Years later, Yuugi and Kaiba run into each other when their children take the Duel Academy entrance exams.
Relationships: Kaiba Seto/Original Female Character(s), Mazaki Anzu | Tea Gardner/Mutou Yuugi
Kudos: 12





	Legacy

Getting Yua to the Duel Academy entrance exams was something of a challenge, because it felt like every few steps they took (Yua had wanted to walk the blocks between their townhouse and the event hall, and not call attention to themselves with the car and driver that normally took them where they wanted to go), someone was stopping him for an autograph, or a picture. And then, more than one journalist on the dueling beat had seemingly appeared out of nowhere, stopping him to ask for a quote about the most recent tournament that he’d won, and to ask if the rumors that he was about to open his own dueling school were true. 

Anzu waved them off. “Can’t you see that we’re in a hurry?” she asked, gesturing to their daughter, who shrunk reflexively when the second pair of reporters trained their eyes on her. “We’re on our way to the Duel Academy entrance exams, and you’re making us late.” 

Yuugi couldn’t help but smile at Anzu’s stern tone. A few reporters buzzing around for a quote or two weren’t going to stop her. They had certainly experienced far worse when they were teenagers.

“Of course,” one of the reporters said, bowing low. “Our sincere apologies. We can follow up with you at a later time if that would be more convenient.” 

Even as Yuugi took their business card, Anzu fixed them with a steely glare, as if to remind them that they had vastly overstayed their meager welcome.

“I’ll give them a call later,” he said sympathetically, and Anzu shook her head. 

“Honestly Yuugi, you’ve always been way more patient than me.”

Yua was now keeping a healthy distance in front of them as they approached the event hall where the entrance exams would be held. “Doesn’t want to ruin her focus, probably,” Yuugi mused as he noted the way that his daughter was straight straight ahead.

“Trying to forget the fact that her dad is The King of Games, more like it,” Anzu laughed. “That’s a lot of pressure for someone, even someone as talented as Yua.”

As Yua approached the registration table, Yuugi noticed that a couple of the Academy officials were craning their necks to look at him. Anzu put a hand on his shoulder. “Let’s go inside and find seats for the test matches.”

Typically, half the students who were applying to Duel Academy took the written exam first, while the other half participated in a practice duel. Then, when the students switched. Of course, there were plenty of students, like Yua, who came into the process with recommendations from teachers, especially if they had gone to a dueling prep school before applying to the Academy. Yua had been somewhat pleased (and frustrated), to see the number of recommendations she’d received months before Academy exams had been scheduled, having at one point accused Yuugi of asking the teachers to write them on her behalf.

When they settled into their seats inside the event hall, Yuugi spotted Yua talking to a boy that looked very familiar.

And then, it hit him.

He hadn’t spoken to Seto Kaiba in years - not since before Yua was born, in fact. Without needing to save the world, they didn’t have very much in common, although if Seto had ever called him, Yuugi wouldn’t have hesitated to consider him a friend. When you saved the world with someone over and over and over again, you became friends (no matter what Seto would ever insist to the contrary). 

But he had followed the news, just like anyone else. In fact, he vividly recalled his assistant, a woman named Sato Aika, (whom Anzu had insisted that he hire because, as much as he insisted he could, he really couldn’t keep up with the flurry of invitations and letters that he seemed to receive on a near daily basis), had shoved the newspaper under his nose that morning, and pointed to a picture of Seto Kaiba, standing next to a tall, thin woman, with her hair tightly pulled back into a neat bun. 

“Did he tell you he was getting married?”

Yuugi shook his head as he read the article. The woman’s name was Kiyama Ahmya. The article claimed that Seto called her ‘Kimmy’, which seemed remarkably un-Seto-like to him. It also noted that she was the daughter of one of the executive vice presidents of Kaiba Corp., and that she had, for a time, been a member of the National Ballet of Japan.

“Do you think Miss Anzu knows her?” 

Anzu recognized the name when he asked, but she hadn’t met Kiyama Ahmya before. The two of them had then spent some time marvelling at the fact that Kaiba, of all people, had actually gone and gotten married - before they had dropped the subject entirely. 

But sitting in the bleachers then, waiting for the duels to start, he couldn’t help but feel the same connection - the same presence, that often alerted him to the fact that Kaiba was nearby. If the Pharaoh hadn’t been gone for many years, he wouldn’t have hesitated to chalk it up to their past lives.

“I’ll be right back,” Yuugi said. “I need to check something out.”

Anzu looked at him quizzically, but nodded. This was something that she’d gotten used to from him when they were teenagers, after all.   
Yuugi hopped over a short barricade that blocked off the floor above them from spectators, and ascended the stairs. Just as he had predicted, there was Kaiba, leaning against the railing, and watching intently at the young duelists below them.

“I should get my security team to throw you out,” Seto said gruffly, although if Yuugi wasn’t mistaken, there was a hint of amusement in his eyes.

Yuugi smiled. “It’s nice to see you too, Kaiba.”

Hell, if this was Jonouchi or Honda or Mai or one of his other friends, they might have even hugged right then. 

Seto regarded him warily. “My team told me you’d be coming when Yua registered. Do you think she will take your title one day?”

Yuugi laughed. “Probably. I hope so, at least.”

“Ah, so that’s the secret to becoming The King of Games,” Seto said wryly. “Just be related to him.”

Yuugi laughed again, though it was hard to ignore the nerves in the pit of his stomach. Even now, he was struck by how much he wanted Kaiba to like him, and the fact that Kaiba actually seemed to be in a good mood was doing nothing to make the nerves die down. 

“I heard you got married,” Yuugi cleared his throat. “Congratulations. How is Ahmya doing?”

Kaiba shrugged. “I could give you her publicist’s number and you could ask her. We’ve been separated for about a year and a half.”

Before Yuugi got the chance to express sympathy, he shrugged again. “Don’t get married to make your shareholders happy.” 

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Yuugi mused, pursing his lips as he gave Kaiba a curious look. He waited for him to ask about Anzu, but the question never came. 

A few seconds later, an announcement over the loudspeaker signaled that the first four duels were about to begin. Yua, and the boy who looked like Kaiba, were among the young duelists that took their places with the exam proctors. 

Perhaps sensing his question, Seto abruptly cut him off. “Akira,” he said, nodding as the duels began. 

Yuugi couldn’t help but think that Kaiba looked as though he had softened with age, although he still possessed the same kingly (although Jonouchi would say entitled and asshole) bearing that he did when they were teenagers. “He’s gotten top marks at dueling prep school, so this should be nothing for him.”

Yuugi stared down at Akira’s match, where he had just summoned two dragons. “Interesting,” Yuugi mused, barely audible. “Is he playing some of your old cards?”

Seto laughed, although it still didn’t sound particularly joyful, Yuugi thought. He wondered if he was offended that he didn’t remember every card in his deck.

“I’ll be dead and buried before I give him any of my old cards. Does Yua have the Dark Magician in her deck? If I remember correctly, you had no shortage of rare cards either,” Seto eyed him curiously. 

As if on cue, he watched as Yua played a monster, one that he recognized as the Fortune Lady Past. Kaiba smirked.

“She has to forge her own path. I’m sure that that’s something that you can appreciate,” he mused as he watched her play the spell card Fortune Lady Calling. He had to wonder how Akira was handling having to do an exam to be accepted to a school that his own father had founded. 

Seto chuckled and nodded. “Her file was stuffed full of recommendations from dueling prep school teachers.”

Yuugi felt a sense of unease at the moment, as though Kaiba had just admitted something he shouldn’t have to him. “She was mad about it. Though asking them to rescind the recommendations probably would have been worse.” It wasn’t as though Yua didn’t have the talent, but it was clear to everyone why exactly she’d received more than anyone else in her year at school.

Seto chuckled again. “Akira was mad that I was still making him take the entrance exam. So was Ahmya. She told me that he should have been able to get in because he was a Kaiba. Please. As if I got anywhere in life because someone held the door open for me.” He scoffed.

An uneasy silence settled between the two of them. Yuugi vaguely wondered if Kaiba knew - as well as he did - that this was the most amount of words that the two of them had ever exchanged with each other. He pursed his lips as he watched the life point counter for Yua’s proctor hit the halfway point.

“Well,” he mused, “I should get back. Anzu’s probably wondering where I went.” He wanted to add something about how they should get together more often, but he didn’t feel like there would have been any truth to those words. Even if Kaiba ended up receptive to the idea.

Seto rolled his lips before nodding. As Yuugi turned to walk back down the stairs, he heard Kaiba clear his throat. He was expecting another question about Yua or perhaps a remark about Akira’s deck. He did not expect the question that came next. 

“Yuugi,” he said quietly. “The stuff that happened when we were teenagers. Was that...real?”

Yuugi smiled to himself. “Goodbye, Kaiba.”


End file.
